Overview of Fire TV & Fire TV Stick software update 5.0.5 changes

Here’s an overview of the changes and additions brought to the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick by software version 5.0.5. If you’d like to learn about what the jump from Fire OS 3 to Fire OS 5 has changed, be sure to checkout my previous articles here and here. This article concentrates on the differences between software version 5.0.4 and 5.0.5.

New ‘Your Videos’ Section

The biggest change brought on by the 5.0.5 software update is the convergence of several Fire TV menu sections into a new ‘Your Videos’ section. The ‘Your Videos’ section is now where you’ll find all the content which doesn’t need to be purchased or rented individually.
If you’re a Prime member, this includes all of the Prime Video content which previously existed in its own section. There are various Prime Vide lists, like Prime Exclusives, Best of Prime, and Prime Recommended, mixed among other content rows in the new ‘Your Videos’ section. Most, if not all, of the Prime Video categories from the old dedicated Prime section is included here.
The ‘Your Videos’ section is also where you’ll find your watchlist and your video library which contains the content you’ve purchased individually from Amazon. Both of these areas previously had their own dedicated menu item, but hve now been consolidated into the ‘Your Videos’ section.
If you are subscribed to any add-on subscriptions, you’ll also find content from those subscriptions highlighted in the ‘Your Videos’ section. Each subscription you have will have several rows showing off popular content from those subscriptions.
You’ll also find free content from services you may have never used, like Crackle, in the ‘Your Videos’ section. Essentially, Amazon is packing in as much content from all kinds of sources which you’ve either already payed for through a monthly fee or which does not require a fee at all.
Other free content found in the ‘Your Videos’ section are TV episodes that are available from Amazon with ads. This is usually just the first episode of a series, but sometimes includes additional episodes. The available shows are separated into categories like Comedy, and Reality TV.
At the very bottom of the ‘Your Videos’ section is a list of all of your subscriptions. Selecting any of them will take you to a screen dedicated solely to that subscription.
Selecting the Prime tile will take you to a page that essentially replicates the old dedicated Prime Video section from the main menu. So if you want to browse just Prime content separated into various categories and lists, this is the best place to do that.

Add-On Subscription Support

The Fire TV now fully supports the new add-on subscription options introduced in December.
On the Home screen, you’ll now find a Featured Subscription section where you can browse all 31 add-on subscriptions that are currently available.
Selecting any subscription will take you to a screen dedicated to just that subscription where you can browse various categories related to the network.
Selecting the Learn More banner at the top of each subscription screen takes you the screen which lists the price of the subscription, the trial length of the subscription, as well as a button which allows you to start the subscription directly from the Fire TV.
Once you select the button, you’ll be taken back to the subscription’s content page with a small message in the lower right informing you that your subscription has started. The Learn More banner at the top will disappear once you’re a subscriber of the add-on network. If you have parental controls enabled and set to block purchases, you will be required to enter your PIN before starting a subscription. All add-on subscriptions can be easily canceled with just a few clicks through Amazon’s website.
When browsing content anywhere within the Fire TV interface, if a particular video is available through one of the networks you’re subscribed to, a “Watch Now with [NETWORK]” button will be front and center. Selecting it will immediately start the video as if you purchased it directly from Amazon. Viewing add-on content does not require additional apps to be installed or launched.

Grid Layout for App and Game Categories

When browsing a category within the Apps or Games section of the Fire TV, the list is now displayed in a grid layout instead of the usual horizontally scrolling list. This is the first introduction of a grid layout of any sort on the Fire TV.
While the grid layout allows you to see more apps at once, there is no longer an option to sort or filter the list, as seen in the screenshot above from the previous 5.0.4 software version.
To see this new grid layout, navigate to the Categories area within either the Apps or Games section. Unfortunately, this is the only place the new layout has been used. You cannot switch between a grid or horizontal list, which would be handy in sections like your app library.

Voice Remote and Game Controller Updated

Once you connect either the new Voice Remote or new Game Controller to the Fire TV after installing the 5.0.5 software update, the peripheral will automatically be updated to a new firmware version. The remote updates to firmware version 197 while the controller updates to version 395. As is usually the case with remote and controller updates, there’s no way to know what exactly is improved or changed. Since these wifi-based peripherals have had many issues in the past, it’s likely these updates just further improve connectivity and performance.

78 comments

it is taking awhile. but it seems the updates are still moving. my FTV1 got the update yesterday and the Stick got it today. both seem to be working smoother. Sideloaded Uverse app is working flawlessly now. Sling loads much faster now.

1st Gen With Kodi 15.2 and not seeing Kodi in my app section after upgrade to 5.0.5. I do see other side loaded apps. Any other 1st gen owners able to view Kodi? if so, what version of Kodi are you using?

You have to go on to your Amazon account delete the Kodi app from there. Then go to setting on your Fire TV/stick to account and sync. After launch Kodi from the application then go back to apps it’ll appear.

I’m not having any luck either. Same situation, 1st gen Fire TV. I got excited when I saw your suggestion re deleting from Amazon and I did have Kodi still listed there but after deleting it, there’s no difference in behavior. No Kodi launcher in Apps or anywhere else, for that matter. Really frustrating. Honestly 5.0.5 is a bucket of meh from where I’m sitting. Alexa does hardly anything on FireTV and I can’t even at least get the Kodi launcher to display.

I did a little more experimenting. I’d forgotten to sync my Amazon account after deleting the Kodi app using a browser but still, no launcher. Then I thought maybe the fact that I’d installed Kodi via Firestarter might be somehow preventing FTV from displaying the Kodi launcher. I uninstalled both Firestarter and Kodi, restarted FireTV (YAY! Easy restart is a win in 5.0.5) then reinstalled just Kodi from a fresh apk download. Fired up Kodi, closed it and… no launcher. I was really hoping that would do it.

After you launch kodi try messing around with it a little before exiting. It took me a while to get Kodi under apps but just keep trying. Or try to sync it again and reboot and see what happens. It show show up.

I sure wish that Amazon or someone else would develop a browser that would work straight from Amaz on Fire TV without having to go through an Adrod device. Is that difficult to make a browser app for this system

Besides my 4 FireTV (2 BOX and 2 Sticks), also I have several Google-TV units (Sony NSZGS8 , Sony NSZ-GT1 and Logitech Revue), that I was using until Google decided to discontinue the GoogleTV-Android-System, and replaced by the current AndroidTV.

All of these GoogleTV consoles, have a Special version of the Chome web browser installed and fully integrated into the android system, which always worked pretty well and fast.

But, I want to emphasize that contrary to FireTV units, which only have a simple remote control, all of these Google-TV consoles have a special little keyboard, to facilitate writing on the Chome web browser.

So, as there are currently several excellent Web Browsers as: Puffin, Chrome, Opera and Dolhin, I really hope soon we could see a special version of any of them for FireTV.

The ES FILE MANAGER has a functional browser that works with the Amazon remote. It also has video, music, and photo apps. And it is free.
I’ve heard of some people who can’t get it from the Amazon store but can see TOTAL COMMANDER which can be used to sideload ES FILE MANAGER and other apps.

The current Es file explorer works like garbage compared to what it was 6 months or so a year ago maybe? In is near impossible to use at times and very hard to see what is selected(as some actions are invisible). Never mind the bloatware and spam apps that it peddles… Luckily it’s pretty easy to sideload old apks and disable updates. Do yourself a favor. Sideload the app from a year ago. Much better version.

If you have an Amazon Echo, Alexa on Fire TV can control Hue lights by automatically directing the network commands through the Echo to the Hue hub on the local network. In my previous limited testing with Fire Stick, this works well. Discovery of the hub should be performed from the Echo.

I am not aware of a current way to control a Hue hub from Fire TV without an Echo intermediary. Perhaps this could be accomplished via IFTTT, “Alexa, trigger ….” commands, and the Philips web service for your hub. However the variable latency of IFTTT can be problematic.

I’ve also lost all my sound on the AFTV after the upgrade. TV works, so if I adjust the volume on my TV I hear the pips, but nothing from the Fire TV box at all.

Interestingly enough, the only thing on my “Your Videos” are Prime stuff. I don’t see Crackle content, nor Hulu, nor Netflix. This could be because my set-up is set to the UK, although I have Crackle installed (and it works), along with Hulu, Netflix and a pile of things.

Subscriptions like Hulu and Netflix likely won’t be in the ‘Your Videos’ section because Amazon has no way to know that you’re a subscriber. It seems like it’s just for Prime, add-on subscriptions, and free content like Crackle for now.

wukong remote on a smart phone is useful for accessing areas with a mouse pointer where the dpad type operation just selects the whole line ( like the sideloaded settings.apk to get bluetooth keypads paired)

Miracast implementation doesn’t seem to be very good with Fire TV.
And I just tried after the update is even worst. Neither my Surface 3 on Windows 8.1 or my Asus Vivotab Note on Windows 10 recognize it.
A generic Android tablet that I have used miracast with my LG TV recognizes the Fire TV stick but wouldn’t connect.
The only device connecting is my Amazon Fire Phone.
The stick could have been a great Miracast device but it is not.

My Fire TV 1 got the update yesterday. In the Music section, all the Prime playlists disappeared. Playlists that I had previously played appeared in the Recently Played area but all the rest were gone.

Hi yes
Since 5.0.5 I have found that Llama no longer works properly, e.g. it cannot launch Kodi when you launch Ikono (previously worked with Condition/Action)
Also side-loading via ADB is blocked with an “error: device is offline” message.
Wukong remote also gave me some issues, but is kinda working now.

OK so played some more and side-loading is not blocked… I think may be a bug in 5.0.5. If you reboot and then go into adb, and try a adb shell and that works, then you can do adb install and side load. However if for example you use Wukong remote before using adb, then adb fails. And the reverse seems to be true as well. So maybe an issue of different functions “blocking” each other…

Apparently Llama not working on OS5 is known issue. I tried AutomateIt and that had same proble,

If you get the offline message in ADB you need to go to system-developer options- turn off ADB debugging and back on again this always works for me.
Regarding Ikono and Lama they are no longer required with third party apps now shown on the Amazon home screen, apps-your apps library.

Hallelujah finally got the update just now… First thing, nothing is really different at all. I’m in the UK so we don’t get many of this stuff, although I do see advertisements in the top bar for shows on Dave/UKTV app.

Disappointed as I mostly wanted the update for a certain app which I assumed only required OS 5… Looks like it’s not available to 1st gen devices at all. I don’t know if it’s quicker or not yet. Wifi signal has gone down. I’ll reserve judgment for later but gutted I can’t get the app I wanted, looks like I’ll be sticking to only using Kodi, Netflix & BBC iPlayer as I’ve always done so eh meh.

Hi I really just have a question, was waiting for the os5 update forever mainly because I really wanted to use my CBS all access account and everything I read said that this was coming with this update. However once I finally got the update couldn’t find the app. Looked for it on Amazon.com and it said it wasn’t compatible with my device. Why isn’t CBS available???and will it ever be???

I didn’t have the update as of yesterday but wondering… regarding Kodi, I’ve been having issues with Kodi “pausing” mid-video recently. I was considering completely reinstalling. If so, and I wait until after this update, is it correct that I will no longer need llama?

After the 5.0.5 update llama will not work. But if you have kodi sideloaded then the kodi icon will appear in the side apps menu and you can launch it from there. Supposedly if you have it installed because you purchased/downloaded it for free when it was available at the amazon app store…you’ll have to delete it from your account and then resync your amazon account in settings and it will then apprar in your apps home menu section.

I am so disappointed that the update to version 5 has ruined my favourite thing about the Fire TV. The photo “Mosaic” screensaver. We had a lifetime of thousands of photos loaded in and whenever our tv would be idle we’d be treated to a beautiful scrolling display of random photos from across the decades and years. I’ve never seen another slide show or screen saver that was elegant as the original Mosaic.

Now the new Mosaic flips pages instead of scrolls and the photos aren’t loaded in advance so there are big black gaps until the photo can manage to load and then the page flips a moment later. The worst part is it keeps crashing I guess due to not being able to shuffle our thousands of photos. It will work for a while and then will reset the album back to Amazon’s default album of natural scenic photos.

If anyone from Amazon is watching, can you please make your Mosaic screensaver as great as it once was?!

I have 3 firetvs on lower software fully rooted. I’ve rooted many others for friends and family. Our biggest disappointment with Amazon was the removal of our sideloaded apps from home screen. We just want that back! I don’t see the newer software as a better choice. We can use usb hubs to connect our usb drives, keyboard, other Bluetooth controllers. We love xbmc/kodi for it’s freedom. We can find all our little favorites we forgot about. Old shows, classic movies, play our movie collection off our usb drives. And Amazon, Netflix and hulu have done a great job streaming video content. I wish we could have a better YouTube app. Be sure to support the xbmc/kodi community by buy the guys a drink, or you favorite t-shirt or sweatshirt!!

For anyone still waiting for the update, as I am, I just finally decided to give the Fire TV tech support a call to ask about it. They indicated that as of today (2/28), the roll-out is at about 65% for the Fire TV Stick with the non-voice remote. Judging by that number, I could see this taking an additional two weeks or so to complete. They actually offered to give me a call when the roll-out was complete to ensure that I got the update, so if anyone is curious, I can share an update when I get word.

For some reason, the update broke my HDMI-CEC from my LG TV, it was working fine before the update, now it have an “one key delay”, for example: If i press NEXT on my remote, it does not, if i press it again, then it go to the next, then, if i press BACK, it go to NEXT, and if i press back again, then it go back, then if i press UP, it go BACK, and if i press DOWN, it go UP.

Its like if it have an delay of 1 key press aways, my luck is that i have an FLIRC, and its still working fine, because my original fire tv remote is not working well

Really pissed that I got this update… thought I had updates blocked properly… didn’t work. Now that the update hit my 1st Gen Fire TV Stick, I get some crappy message telling me that my TV’s “USB power” is not sufficient, even though it always worked fine before this shitbag update, it still works just fine now, even with the dumb message appearing. Really annoying. Is there any way to turn off the “subscription” stuff, as I will never pay for any “add-on subscriptions” and don’t need that crap on my screen. Not sure about the performance of the new OS, but WiFi in general seems pretty crummy since the update.

Hi,
Does anyone know if the update has started in the uk yet?
I loaded Kodi on the weekend which worked great but now my box is crashing all the time…Im not the most technical when it comes to stuff like this but i spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get my aftv working…..NIGHTMARE///